Despite Eastern’s attempt to raise the quality of students attending the university, the average ACT score for incoming freshmen remains the same.

In the fall of 1999, Eastern raised admission standards, a move that “obviously hasn’t had a big impact,” Frank Hohengarten, enrollment management dean, said Thursday.

The change required incoming freshmen to have an ACT score of at least 18 if they were in the top quarter of their graduating class and at least 19 if they were only in the top half of their class. It was an increase of one point from the previous year, Hohengarten said. Students in the upper three quarters of their class must have at least a 22 on their ACT.

However, there is a clause in the admissions policy allowing students who don’t meet those requirements to appeal admissions’ decision to turn them down.

“All universities have to put in place an appeals process,” Dale Wolf, admissions director, said Friday.

Since the fall of 1999, the average ACT score for freshmen has fallen one-tenth of a percent from 22.2 to 22.1. Over the last nine years, from the fall of 1992 to the fall of 2001, the average per year has been 22.05, which means quality has increased slightly but not substantially.

“Statistically, (a change in average scores) would not be significant,” Hohengarten said. “It is very hard to move it one way or the other, and most people round off these numbers.”

Wolf agreed the change in average ACT scores for freshmen was neither bad nor good, saying the numbers “don’t change a lot.”

“Our admissions policy is absolutely in line with the rest of the state, and it is probably just a hair tougher than the rest of the state,” Wolf said.

Hohengarten said that interim President Lou Hencken’s hopes to boost enrollment by 250 students won’t translate into allowing more students in through the appeals process to meet that goal, thus lowering the overall quality of Eastern’s enrollment.

Hohengarten said “that is not the intent,” and Eastern is making extra attempts to attract more students to apply.

“We have hired two additional admissions counselors and have made more calls to students,” he said.